Fellow capper Sans Serif
reposted it to his fb, where one of his friends suggested there might be a sweet spot where an elephant could still breathe without being crushed. To see if that’s so,  we first need to know how much weight that  elephant column puts on an elephant at a given height. [If this were basic cable, this is where we'd put a "science content" warning. Since it's not, we won't. If you flunked out of AP Physics, just ignore the formulas and you should get the gist.]

Adapting from the first source I found, the weight of a column of height h would be

W(h) = R * h * W_e  / H_e * (R + h)

where R is the radius of the earth at the bottom of the stack, and W_e and H_e are the respective weight and height of a unit elephant. So, if we take H_t as the total height of the stack, the total weight would be

W_t = W (H_t) = R * H_t * We / H_e * (R + H_t)

To find the weight, WA,  pressing down at height h, we just subtract the weight below from the total weight and do some mild algebra to get:

WA(h) = W_t – W(h) = C * (H_t – h) / ((R + H_t) *(R + h))

where C is a constant defined as

C = R² * W_e / H_e

So, let’s see if the first space elephant, sitting at the so-called edge of the atmosphere, the Kármán line, h = 100 km, might have survived the weight on top of it.  We’ll treat the earth as a perfect sphere and use R = 6,371 km. To get a (relatively) short stack of elephants, we’ll go with the more pessimistic results of our casual googling and put “every elephant in the world” at 326,000.  We’ll also go with an average height of  H_e = 3.4 m, which puts the whole stack at H_t= 1,108 km. Plugging these all in, we find a weight of just under a quarter million elephants pressing down on the first space elephant.  Without looking up the compressive strength of an elephant, I’m going to say that’s still well in the crushed elephant range. So, there’s no sweet spot in the breathable but uncrushed range.  I’d further wager that’s not just crushed, but liquified too.  So, in addition to the space elevator we’d probably have to build to carry this all out, we’ll also need a tube extending up into orbit to hold our Dumbo gumbo. Which would be some pretty advanced technology, bu wasn’t it Arthur C. Clarke who said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a slurry of elephants?

We got to see the wonders of how a bot is built, and Joe even made us some Servo heads that we were able to be goofy with at the show (hoisting them when Servo was mentioned or alluded to).

Anyway, the show was excellent, and I’ll be running some of the pictures for your capping pleasure Monday June 22 @ 8 PM Eastern on Inventing Situations. You can preview (and well, caption) them by clicking the image here (that’s the end of the stream, the start is here).

you can either buy the track and synch it up with your own copy of Krull, or email Indo (voxorox neoleo net) to request one of his handful of review copies, so you can post an HONEST review at rifftrax.com.

[alt link to the photo]

Wow, an indirectly mst3k inspired t-shirt I designed in the presence of Trace and one time t-shirt factory employee Joel. At the school whose rejection letter sent me into a nearly two decade long downward spiral. This means something.

* Limited to the tiny number I could sell.

(direct link)

Folks,

By now most of you have noticed that I cannot give the wiki the time it deserves to be maintained, developed and otherwise. I am asking that someone within the capping community take over the responsibility of controlling and maintaining the wiki. It is possible that the job could be split into two parts. Firstly, the aforementioned controlling and maintaining the site. Second, someone who develops the site. However, it is possible the two jobs can go to the same person. I will continue to pay for the hosting and domain name. I have no problem with this as this community has given me so much over the years, it is the least I can do. But whomever takes over will have final say on decisions pertaining to all things wiki. Regardless of me paying the bills, I will not be a ‘shadow’ owner, I am giving up complete control. I will stay on as a ‘consultant’ and help with any issues that may crop up as best I can. Gerson has also offered to help in a limited capacity as well. I would ask that whoever is interested have a decent tech background. You don’t need to be super sysadmin or an ubercoder, but more than a modicum of technical expertise is kind of required to do this and do it right. My guess is that there are several people within the group that fit this description. The question is do you want the responsibility? If you do, please be sure. In the words of the immortal Mayor Chapstick, no givesies-backsies! ;)

I apologize to you all for not giving the site the attention it needs but my life in the real world is not compatible with maintaining and/or developing the wiki at this time. Heck, it hasn’t been for some time. I think you all know that. It is my sincere hope that this decision will make the wiki a better place to visit and source of enjoyment for everyone.

If you are interested, contact me via this handy form and know that I will help with the transition and get you where you need to be to be the full on site admin for the wiki. You won’t be stepping into it alone. Thank you for your time

– Arch

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To properly honor the day, drink whenever Joe tells you to. Tea-totallers and the underage may substitute hot tea for booze, but they have to chug it.

And since this is all happening on a release of the mst3k episode Giant Gila Monster, we’re showing the unmstied version at 8 PM that day.

p.s. the disc is also available in a limited single order pressing direct from Rhino, that ships on the 11th.

Update: The holiday has been picked up at hipsoda and Glitter’s told me they’ll be celebrating at the CPB too.

Josh: You know, I was gonna’ get one of those iTunes enabled freezers
Trace: They’ve got all the coolest music.
Frank: What? Like the Ice Cube and the Ice Tea?. . .
Mary Jo: I don’t think that’s what…
Frank: ..Ice Ice Baby?
Joel: Come on guys. Cool it.

[Ouch]

Much punnier than I usually like to go and I never feel exactly right putting words in the Brains’ mouths. Even so, amongst the five people who capped it, I was one of the five who won. I had to go with the mstiest damn thing on the fridge, the shadowrama cling pictured above, which arrived in the mail today. Between this and my brush with Frankness earlier this week, it’ll be a disappointment if my Cinematic Titanic doesn’t arrive tomorrow wrapped in a pair of Joel’s old socks.

Addendum: I nearly forgot – congrats to fellow capper ReptilianSamurai, who also got to scavenge the fridge.